All the latest genealogy industry news based on press releases issued by genealogy vendors, societies, educators and other service providers.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Genealogy & Family History Question & Answer Site Now in Public Beta

Over 200 Avid Genealogists Have Worked for Almost 2 Months to Make This Site Possible

After 20 days in "Definition" phase, 31 days in "Commitment" phase, and 7 days in Private Beta, a new resource for genealogists and family historians worldwide is now in Public Beta and is now open to everyone. Genealogy and Family History Q&A is where you can go to ask questions about genealogy and solve problems you are having in your research and get answers fast from experts in the field and other genealogy enthusiasts.

New York City, New York – Stack Exchange Inc., has just released the Genealogy and Family History Q&A site into Public Beta. Public Beta is a minimum 90 day period where the site is released to the general public. If sufficient interest is shown by the community as measured by level of activity and traffic, then the site will be made permanent and allowed to be community run. This site is unaffiliated with any genealogy company or service. There is no cost to use the site and it only requires that you create an account to participate.

When someone asks a question on at Genealogy and Family History Q&A, the community reviews, revises, and proposes answers to it.

Answers are rated and ranked by the rest of the community. Members also vote for questions they find useful, or against those they see as unclear or unproductive. The more votes, the more visibility - so that searches result in the best answer to the best question.

Questions and answers can be edited by other members, Wikipedia-style. This lets the community continue to polish and update content even when the original authors aren't available.

"We hope Genealogy and Family History Q&A will become the place genealogists of all levels go to get answers to their problems, and also the place they go to use their expertise to answer the problems of others," says Louis Kessler, one of the participants helping with the proposal. "Everyone from experts, to avid enthusiasts down to beginners will be able to benefit from using the site."

About Stack Exchange, Inc.

Stack Exchange is a growing network of individual communities, each dedicated to serving experts in a specific field. They build libraries of high-quality questions and answers, focused on each community's area of expertise.

About Louis Kessler

Louis Kessler is a long-time programmer and genealogist. He is the author of the genealogy software Behold and operates the Genealogy Software Reviews site. Louis has participated in the Stack Overflow site on the Stack Exchange Network that is for programming questions and answers. He helped with the proposal and private beta of the Genealogy & Family History Q&A site.